English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Development support is nothing new. It has been around since the beginning of humanity, although the subject, objectives, objects, methods and means of support have changed. Development support is common, although not always performed consciously and correctly. For this reason, a branch of applied psychology – development support psychology – has grown in popularity, with an objective to analyse this phenomenon to understand it better and more consciously and to benefit from this support. To understand development support, one needs to understand properly the idea of development, which is perceived in its whole ontogenesis. It can already be seen in prenatal life and is particularly visible among children and adolescents. Recently, the right to development has also been given to adults. Development is thus a phenomenon which concerns the whole life. Charlotte Bühler described human development as a process that lasts for the entire life. This perspective, known as life-span development, makes it possible to support human development until the end of one’s days. Such a universal presentation of a development process and the associated development support creates optimistic perspectives for everyone. Looking back on the literature of the previous century, instead of the term development support we find the slightly different notion of development stimulation. Are these two terms the same? Although almost synonymous, there is a subtle difference between them. This is a consequence of a particular presentation of a person and their development. It is a humanistic approach, according to which a person is perceived as an active individual and not as an object of social impacts or educational methods forming their development, world view and in consequence, their behaviour. Such an approach is expressed in Maria Żebrowska’s (1988) fourfactor theory of development. According to this concept, the factors determining who a person will become are: genetic predisposition; social environment; upbringing, which is conscious and has a planned environmental impact; and one’s own activity. The last factor, one’s own activity, ultimately determines who we become. It is also activated by human development support, because we are not able to support a person’s development endlessly. We hope that at some point a person will be in charge of their own activity to continue the progressive changes aimed at a higher level of functioning. Maria Monterssori famously said “Help me to do it alone”. Even at the turn of the 20th century, the founder of Montessori preschools and special education could notice the value of support, but only to a limited extent. The quoted sentence can be understood as: “Help me, but do not do it for me, so that I could learn to do it myself”, which means functioning on a higher level. That is the core of proper helping, which is not limited to temporary benefits, but makes it possible to reach a higher level of development. The same trend regarding support and development support was shared by Lev Vygotsky, who in 1934 posited a concept of the zone of proximal development. According to this concept it is only acceptable and advisable to assist children in the activities, which they have not yet fully mastered. With a help from an adult, these activities will soon become independent, which means a development progress. Thus, having Maria Montesorri’s and Lev Vygotsky’s ideas in mind, we can see consent and even encouragement to support the development of children, albeit performed moderately so this support would wake one’s motivation and developmental possibilities. The issues discussed here deserve serious consideration since there emerged a separate branch of applied psychology, namely development support psychology. This young and constantly changing discipline of theoretical knowledge and practice draws from such well-established branches of theoretical psychology as developmental psychology, health psychology, psychopathology and branches of applied psychology, such as clinical psychology and educational psychology. Distinguishing between these narrow disciplines in the previous century raises no doubts. It is now difficult to classify them properly, because there are still new branches and shoots appearing, such as the Polish Psychological Bulletin 2016, vol. 47(3) 247–249 DOI 10.1515/ppb-2016-0029

Development Support Psychology: A New Branch of Psychology?